Family Portrait
by onedoe2not2iimply
Summary: Craig's parents had never been abusive like Kenny's dad was when drunk, they had never brainwashed him with the whole we-do-it-because-we-love-you crap like Butters' parents had. Craig's parents had never ceased caring about him like Clyde's dad had after his mother's death. To everyone else in town Craig's family seemed normal, happy. That was far from the truth.


Craig's parents had never been abusive like Kenny's dad was when drunk, they had never brainwashed him with the whole we-do-it-because-we-love-you crap like Butters' parents had. Craig's parents had never ceased caring about him like Clyde's dad had after his mother's death. To everyone else in town Craig's family seemed normal, happy. That was far from the truth, almost every night Craig could hear his mother cry herself to sleep, some nights he woke up to the sound of glass breaking. Some nights Ruby slept in his room; softly crying into his shoulders. Craig found it incredible that the neighbors hadn't heard his parents yell at each other constantly. They fought about everything, mostly about money or about Craig and Ruby.

Craig would always remember the day Tweek and Clyde came over after school to play videogames and in the beginning they had had lots of fun. Then his father came home, Craig had almost pushed them both up the stairs and into his room. He had barely closed the door before the yelling started. Clyde and Tweek had stared at him as he looked down in shame. They never spoke about the incident not even to Token and after that they always played videogames at Clyde or Token's house.

At the age of ten Craig blamed himself for all the fighting, thinking he wasn't good enough. That maybe he was doing something wrong.

Craig stepped between his parents once, they had been fighting upstairs that time and Ruby had been crying, Craig had been 11 and he had just stepped between them almost crying himself as he yelled at them to stop. His mom had grabbed his wrist to pull him out of harm's way. Craig had pulled his arm back a little too roughly and stumbled backwards, tumbling down the stairs, the last he remembered from that incident was both his parents screaming out his name. It was the only time he had gotten physically hurt because of his parents fighting, he had broken his wrist and there was now a small dent in the floor below the staircase where Craig's head had collided with the floor. Craig's parents didn't fight for three days after that, when the kids at school asked about the cast he had told them that he had just slipped on the driveway. Both Token and Clyde saw right through the lie but neither of them asked about it again.

Craig ran away once when he was 12, he was gone for a full three hours before Ruby had called him sobbing and crying, she had been home alone and stepped on a broken piece of glass in the kitchen. He had run back home to take care of her and to pick up the glass. He never tried to run away again after that.

Sometimes he'd climb up on the roof of his house and pretend he couldn't hear his parents yelling from inside. He'd spend hours up there just looking at the stars and wishing he was somewhere else. He would also sneak out some nights and go wherever. Sometimes he spent time with Clyde or Tweek. Most of the time he hung out with Kenny as it seemed he also sneaked out a lot, they would usually just sit around somewhere and smoke together (at least since they turned 14 and Kenny had stolen some cigarettes from his brother). Kenny was also one of the reasons Craig seemed to stay in shape, after all the times they had ended up running from authorities.

When he was 17 Clyde had sat down opposite of him in the library and looked him right in the eye and told him that he wanted to know everything. Craig had blinked at him a couple of times but then told him. Clyde had given a few nods here and there and it wasn't until he had stood up, walked around the table and wrapped him in a hug that Craig realized that he'd actually been crying. Craig had buried his face in Clyde's chest as he let the tears fall. Clyde had never been good at talking about emotions but the guy gave the best hugs there were. People were staring, Craig knew they were but he'd never really cared about them anyway. Clyde had later grabbed both their bags and led Craig to his car. They had skipped school for the rest of the day and played videogames at Clyde's house. Craig had never felt closer to his friend than he did that day. Craig had told Tweek and Token about all of it the day after and he had to admit that after telling them he did feel a little better about it and he felt at least ten times closer to all of them afterwards.

Craig moved out when he was 18, just after high school. Ruby had been crying when she helped him pack his things not wanting to be left alone. Craig had kissed her forehead and assured her that she'd be alright that she was going to be okay. She only had to put up with it for four more years and that she would be welcome to stay with him every weekend if she liked. Denver wasn't really that far away anyway, and she did stay every weekend.

Craig shared his apartment with Clyde; Token had gone to college in New York and Tweek had stayed in South Park to help his parents with Tweek Bros, he had told them he'd be alright though and he like Ruby stayed with them on weekends. Craig wondered about his parents sometimes, he still talked to them sometimes. Never both of them at the same time though, from the phone calls they seemed like any other family but they still weren't. Craig never told anyone how happy he was to be out of that house but he was pretty sure most people could tell.

If you ever looked at a family portrait of the Tucker family you could never think they were anything other than happy but Craig had long ago decided that it was all just play pretend, put on your best smiles and make everyone believe they had it great.

* * *

AN: This one is slightly based on the song Family Portrait by Pink


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